


Sugar and Spies

by commander_connivingcat



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Espionage, Fluff, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, M/M, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:47:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22042798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commander_connivingcat/pseuds/commander_connivingcat
Summary: Cor and Ardyn go undercover at a holiday cookie factory and find something sweeter than any cookie.
Relationships: Ardyn Izunia/Cor Leonis
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: FFXV Secret Santa 2019





	Sugar and Spies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dannydangerzone](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Dannydangerzone).



**Insomnia,**

**Citadel**

**25 Days until Christmas**

Twas’ the first day of winter…

And the residents of Insomnia awoke to see the normally intimidating Citadel dusted with snow and covered with lavish decorations. Children built snowmen in the park at the entrance while adults set up booths to sell warm food and drink along the street. It was the kind of image one would make gingerbread houses of. 

Across Insomnia, the holiday season had begun. Garland and wreaths hung from every lamppost and brightly colored lights made the buildings sparkle. Carols were sung with joy from the streets and the children began to dream of their vacation to come. 

All of the holiday joy was heralded by the King himself. King Regis had set every employee of his home to decorating for the holidays. It was quite the ordeal, but few minded it. The joy the Citadel decorations brought to the entire city made it all worthwhile, but overtime pay didn’t hurt, either. 

Now, Regis and his royal elves set about decorating the inside of the great building. The King busied himself with the details of decorations, directing what garland to be hung from the staircases, what ornaments would adorn the chandeliers, and where every tree would stand guard, while royal servants of every station set about to bejewel every inch of the Citadel. Even the young prince and his adviser-in-training were helping to hang decorations. 

All of the King’s most trusted servants were on hand, helping prepare the kingdom for holiday cheer. All except one: Cor Leonis, the King’s personal bodyguard. 

Cor thought the whole ordeal to be horrendously overdone. So many Christmas decorations seemed tacky with far too much glitter and fake snow that wouldn’t get out of his clothes for months. The season required seeing friends and family when he would rather be left alone. And worst of all, every one of the many dinners that he attended seemed to feature overly sweet desserts.Cor had never been a fan of sweets and he detested have to “be polite” this time of year and stomach them. 

But today he could not stay huddled away in his apartment, as he had been summoned to the castle by the King himself. 

Carefully arranged silver bells rang as he pushed open the Throne Room’s doors. Cor had to dodge between lines of servants carrying trees and decorations, all giggling and dressed in their festive, and frankly ridiculous, regalia. Amongst the bright colors and twinkling lights, King Regis could be seen on the staircase, directing the swarm of elves. 

“Your Majesty…” Cor began as he dodged more servants. 

“Ah! Cor! Happy holidays, my dear friend!” The King beamed up at his bodyguard. Cor sighed. It had begun.

A passing servant brought a silver platter of holiday cookies. The sweet confections were a dark brown with bright frosting on them, decorated to look like little people. The young Prince Noctis and his advisor-in-training ran up to the platter, which the servant lowered for them with a smile. Cor had to admit that their tiny faces were cute when they shown with such excitement. Each grabbed a cookie before running off again. 

The King laughed as he took one for himself and gestured for Cor to take one as well. The bodyguard grudgingly took one, hoping to dispose of it discreetly, but the King held up his cookie in a “cheers” fashion. 

“To the holidays!” The King exclaimed as the cookies touched. He smiled and bit off the head of the confectionary figure in his hands. Cor took a small bite of his. The cookie wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t as sickeningly sweet as he expected. Rather, it tasted like a strong cup of spiced tea. Still, the bodyguard had little appetite for such frivolities. 

Cor cleared his throat. “Oh! Yes!” Regis snapped out of his sugar filled daze. He gulped down the last of his cookie in one bite before he stole a second one and wandered off. Cor leapt forward to join into step. 

Regis lowered his voice to a conspiratorial level while the two of them passed by more servants. “What I am about to ask of you is of the utmost importance…” Regis paused to look Cor in the eyes. “And the utmost secrecy.” 

Cor raised an eyebrow. Things were finally getting interesting. The pair continued walking. “I’m sending you on a mission to protect the economic stability of Eos.” Cor clasped his hands behind his back, preparing for a full briefing on this mission. 

The King continued, “You’ll be heading to Altissa to infiltrate the Miss Sweet’s Bakery factory as an undercover Elf…” 

Cor stopped in his tracks. All he could manage was to blink in surprise. He had been to countless countries, assassinated his fair share of diplomats, infiltrated the top weapons facilities on Eos...but this?!It took a few steps for Regis to realize he had left his bodyguard behind. 

“You’re sending me to a cookie factory?” Cor managed. 

“Well...yes. But this mission is of the utmost importance!” Regis pushed. 

Cor wanted so badly to turn and leave that instant, but his overbearing loyalty would never allow it. 

“You’re sending me...to a holiday cookie factory...how is this important?!” He snapped. Regis motioned for him to lower his voice and calm the lion within. 

“The economy of Eos depends on this factory!” Regis almost plead. “ It produces the majority of all commercial holiday confections in Eos! Rumor has it that Niflheim is trying to buy it. Should that happen, they would control a whopping five percent of the holiday market!” Cor tried to do the calculations in his head as to what that would mean. “That is FAR too much for Niflheim to control!” Regis finished. 

Cor simply raised an eyebrow at him. “How long have you been rehearsing that speech?”

Regis sighed. “Quite some time. And like it or not, you’re going. I’ve already arranged for you to go and ‘visit family in Altissa’ for the next month.”

“So you’re sending me on an off the books mission to save your favorite holiday cookie?” 

“Royal privilege.” Regis answered with the mischievous grin he had mastered years ago. 

**Gralea**

**25 Days Until Christmas**

Far away from the festivities of Insomnia, the season looked far bleaker in Niflheim. The militaristic kingdom had no decorations on any official buildings. The holiday season had been rung in by a frightful blizzard the night before, covering the city in far too much snow and cold to function in. 

Soldiers still busied themselves in the halls of Gralea, though, making the inside of the building look warmer than the outside. Today, Chancellor Izunia had called upon High Commander Ravus for an “official meeting”. 

“Do you know what the best part about this time of year is, my dear General?” Ardyn asked, whilst prancing through the concrete halls of the fortress, ripping down garland, smashing babbles, kicking statutes, and throwing wreaths as he encountered them. Behind him, Ravus followed, picking up each newly displaced decoration. 

“Pray tell...what is it?” Ravus asked, hands overflowing with babbles, fully exasperated at the season, and the Chancellor, already. 

“Nothing...” Ardyn turned to face Ravus, a sinister smile painted on his lips. “The whole holiday was created as an homage to the gods, beings that have had far more praise than they could ever deserve. And now, the charade has become a commercialized disaster. With children demanding each new toy and every human consuming enough food to feed a village!” Ardyn picked up a cookie from a tray laying nearby. He ate it in one bite before picking up the tray and chucking it down the hallway. “Overindulgence has become the ‘reason for the season’.And so it’s time to start...dismantling this little show.” He gazed back proudly at the path of destruction he had caused. 

Ravus raised one eyebrow. “And that is why you’re trying to shut down some random cookie factory?” 

“Yes! They control a sizable portion of the holiday market, but they’re still run by some peasants from Altissa.” Ardyn picked up a babble from Ravus’s arms under the chilling glare of the General. “I’ll give them no choice but to sell to me! Then I’ll shut the whole.thing.down.” sang before smashing the babble in his hands. “That should eliminate some of this holiday hubbub.” And then he was gone, bouncing through the halls again. 

“What a dramatic little…” Ravus mumbled as he handed the decorations he saved off to a soldier. 

**Altissa**

**Miss Sweet’s Bakery, Main Factory**

**23 Days Until Christmas**

It was the first day of “Elf Training” at Miss Sweet’s Bakery. Today, all of the new hires, or Elves as management liked them called, were to be trained on the inner workings of the factory. Behind the conveyor belt stood a thoroughly annoyed Cor Leonis next to a gleeful Ardyn Izunia, each wearing elf hats. 

Cor had come as an undercover spy for King Regis, taking on the mantle of Leo Corvis, a son of a humble baker from Duscae. Ardyn, not wanting to give away his plans, decided to go by Joseph, or Joe for short, a simple man from Tenebrae just looking for work. 

The factory would have made Willy Wonka proud. Conveyor belts stretched from one end of the massive building to the other, stretching from high above to ground level, helping confections go to their final destination in frosting, packaging, or shipping. 

In front of the conveyor belt, the Miss Sweet herself stood. She was an older woman with large rimmed glasses. Her gray hair was neatly tied into a bun on top of her head, while her shawl always looked like it was about to fall off of her shoulders. She went on and on in her chiming voice while thralls of other workers stood smiling behind him. “We’re a big family here,” and “We love the holidays here! They’re a part of everything we do!” were common themes in her speech. Cor couldn’t count the number of times he rolled his eyes while Ardyn nodded and bounced beside him. 

Finally the Elves were allowed to begin their work. “Aren’t you excited?” Joe whispered to his new colleague. 

Leo signed while dumping ingredients into a funnel. “Sure am.” He tried to infuse his statement with enthusiasm, but his failure was evident. 

Ardyn simply smiled to himself.  _ These idiots will be none the wiser… _ he thought. 

Joe was meant to be making sure the oven was set to the proper temperature for the cookies, but he made one slight deviation: he infused the oven with dark magic. The result was that the oven took on a mind of its own and infused each cookie with daemonic powers. 

The conveyor belt began to produce hordes of jet black cookies that shifted and began to bounce at Elves. Some Elves screamed and ran away, others began to beat at the cookies with pans. Miss Sweet seemed to stand as still as a statue staring at the scene before her. 

The oven and conveyor belt began to smoke and malfunction with the overload of magic. Joe presented a faux concern as the rest of the factory turned to sheer chaos. Ardyn flashed a wicked smile to himself. 

As comical as Cor found the scene, he knew this was going to be part of his mission. The King had sent him here to protect the “economy of Eos” and that meant keeping this factory running. With little hesitation Leo dove towards the oven. He hit the controls to make the machine stop producing daemonic cookies. With a shudder and groan, the wicked machine stopped. Now, the remaining cookies had to be taken care of!

The cookies already produced had taken on a life all their own, though. Small hands and feet made of incor helped the little confectionery nightmares cause massive chaos. Leo grabbed a nearby pairing knife and slashed at every sugary daemon that lunged for him. The other Elves that put up a fight gathered around him, with Miss Sweet amongst them! Soon, they were a makeshift daemon fighting squad of bakers. 

Ardyn watched his work with childlike glee, until it turned against him. Some of the cookies started working out bolts in the legs of the conveyor belt. The whole structure sayed, threatening to come down. Just as Leo and his team cleaned up the last of the daemonic cookies that they found, the whole structure came down. 

Most Elves were smart enough to get out of the way, but the guy who had been standing next to him,  _ Jim or something like that,  _ was in the way of the structure. 

Leo lunged for the panicked man, tackling him out of the way just as the structure collapsed. Flour and powdered sugar went everywhere, making everyone unable to see what was going on for a few minutes. Voices called out if Leo and Joe were all right. 

As the dust settled, Cor looked up, into the dark eyes of the man he had saved, and now lay on top of. The other Elves burst into applause at the save. 

“My hero…” Ardyn exclaimed with mock enthusiasm to the man on top of him. 

Cor blushed redder than the crimson frosting. He quickly sat up. “It was nothing…” he muttered, rubbing his head. 

“Au contraire! I owe you my life!” Ardyn found this flustered hero absolutely adorable. How could someone be so brave yet so stupid?   
  


“Whatever…” Cor got up and brushed himself off. Why was this man flustering him so?Instead of admitting defeat, he stalked off into the back room to help begin the clean up process. 

“Maybe not everything about this wretched place is awful…” Ardyn exclaimed as he got to his feet. He picked up the remains of one daemonic cookie. It was now a gooey, smouldering mess. 

He shrugged as this failed attempt before throwing the cookie over his shoulder towards the still smoking oven. 

**Author's Note:**

> More to come soon! Thank you for reading! This has been so much fun to write!


End file.
